9th August, 2022
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, for 2023 election in Rivers, Senator Magnus Abe has asked Governor Wike and other political leaders not to return the state to the dark era of politics of bitterness and antagonisms.
Abe said this while reacting to the threat of Wike to pull down hotels allegedly being used to recruit cultists by politicians ahead of the 2023 elections in a broadcast last Sunday.
The SDP governorship candidate who spoke while receiving members of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union and the Middle Belt Forum in Rivers proposed a security summit to which all political leaders would be invited to share their ideas on how to make 2023 elections peaceful.
“We must pray for a peaceful election in our state. And we will not just pray for a peaceful election, all of us must work for a peaceful election.
“We must be peaceful in our conduct before, during and after the elections.
“Do not harass anybody. Everybody has a right to support whoever they want to support.
“Every political party must be given space, when it is time, when the campaigns start, to campaign for candidates of their choice.
“Nigerian democracy has come of age. It is no longer the carry-go democracy of yesteryear.
“Now, the people of this country want to exercise their right to choose leaders of their choice.
“They cannot do so except we create an atmosphere in which ideas can freely flourish.
“I am a man of ideas. I will bring up better ideas that will convince the electorate that going with us in our vehicle will lead them to a better place.
“And that is what I expect that every other aspirant, candidate, political party should do.”
He called on party followers not to tear another person’s billboard. “Don’t tear another person’s poster. Don’t beat up people who do not agree with you. Don’t fight them.”
Abe said he wants to see a state where young people will have jobs, where there will be light for all and those who want to do business, where schools will function effectively in such a manner that children will actually learn something from the schools.
“I believe that everybody who wants office wants it so that the state can be better. If it is because of Rivers people that you want to hold office, you will not want to beat them, you will not want to frustrate them, you will not want to kill them, you will not want to wound them.
If you want Rivers people to be happy, even your campaign will make them happy. That is the kind of thing that I expect that we should all do.”
The leader of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union and the Middle Belt Forum, Samuel Adamu commended Senator Abe for his brand of politics.